Baltimore unveils neighborhood-centric pilot cleanup program in Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello | Cleanliness is very important, but not a program in and of itself

from the article in the Baltimore Sun:

Baltimore’s Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello neighborhood will be the site of a new pilot program to combat illegal dumping in the city, Mayor Brandon Scott announced Monday. 

The program will use $70,000 in grant money from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation and the Department of Housing and Community Development to fund three city positions dedicated to cleaning streets and alleys in the East Baltimore neighborhood. 

The employees, who will be residents of the neighborhood, will also be trained to continue work for the city’s Department of Public Works, Scott said Monday. The program will initially focus on the Tivoly Redevelopment Area and is expected to last for one year. If successful, Scott said, he hopes to deploy it in other city neighborhoods.

Photo from community Facebook page.

Program need and likelihood of success varies according to the state of a neighborhood as a weak or strong market.  When I write entries, I don't always adequately differentiate policy and practice proscriptions according to the state of a community/ neighborhood in terms of it being "distressed, emerging, transitioning, or healthy," which is a form of categorization first outlined by HUD in the 1970s.  

I prefer a seven stage model, with "high" and "low" for the emerging, transitioning, and healthy categories.

I first discussed this in 2007.  The entry "Systematic Neighborhood Engagement" aimed to figure out why streetscape improvements on 8th Street SE in the Barracks Row commercial district on Capitol Hill seem to have extranormal velocity in sparking improvement.

I figured out it was because the commercial district might have lagged, but the residential neighborhood surrounding it was extremely "healthy."  And that the city shouldn't believe that by itself, investments in streetscape would always have the same effect, especially in more distressed neighborhoods.

Systematic neighborhood revitalization planning and programming.  In any case, from the standpoint of both "Broken Windows" theory and systematic programs for neighborhood improvement, 

I think street cleaning programs are find, but they need to be integrated in a broader set of programs and initiatives, as outlined in this series from last summer: -- "The need for a "national" neighborhood stabilization program comparable to the Main Street program for commercial districts: Part I (Overall)"
-- "To be successful, local neighborhood stabilization programs need a packaged set of robust remedies: Part 2"
-- "Creating 'community safety partnership neighborhood management programs as a management and mitigation strategy for public nuisance programs: Part 3 (like homeless shelters)"
-- "A case in Gloucester, Massachusetts as an illustration of the need for systematic neighborhood monitoring and stabilization initiatives: Part 4 (the Curcuru Family)"

If not part of a larger program, it's not likely to have much effect in stoking new residential recruitment and business development, because community cleanliness is a basic expectation.

Although Baltimore has a number of community support programs that are overarching, including Healthy Neighborhoods and the Live Baltimore residential recruitment program.

Granted, Baltimore has plenty of active and engaged community organizations, but maybe they need to be better integrated with more focused revitalization programming.\

WRT dealing with dumping, etc., St. Louis uses CCTV ("Focused ways to deal with illegal dumping: camera-based enforcement"), which if dumping is a severe problem, needs to be part of the response.

Systematic commercial district revitalization planning and programming for small commercial districts.  Note that DC has done a lot of this kind of funding regular street cleanup in commercial districts around the city, outside of areas that are part of business improvement districts.

But I don't think they've been particularly successful, because keeping streets clean is only one element of commercial district revitalization.

I happened to write about that about a year ago, as well:

-- "Basic planning building blocks for urban commercial district revitalization programs that most cities haven't packaged: Part 1 | The first six"
-- "Basic planning building blocks for urban commercial district revitalization programs that most cities haven't packaged: Part 2 |  A neighborhood identity and marketing toolkit (kit of parts)"
-- "Basic planning building blocks for urban commercial district revitalization programs that most cities haven't packaged: Part 3 | The overarching approach, destination development/branding and identity, layering and daypart planning"
-- "Basic planning building blocks for "community" revitalization programs that most cities haven't packaged: Part 4 | Place evaluation tools"